The cost of bunking work in corporate South Africa is estimated at a minimum of R19,1-billion, with Mondays and Fridays the worst days for absenteeism, a fresh survey showed on Thursday.
“Absenteeism is the single biggest cause of lost time and poor productivity that this country faces,” says labour specialist Andrew Levy, who analysed the survey — The Vanishing Workforce — undertaken by Corporate Absenteeism Management (CAMS).
The research shows that by far the greatest manifestation of absence is one day or less — in this case, 35% of all observations. It is shown that over 50% of all absence measured in the sample is short term — i.e. less than two days, while less than 20% is four days or more.
In the survey 63% of companies said there is a pattern to absence. It showed that 52,1% of all absences recorded related to Mondays and/or Fridays, or before and after long weekends or public holidays.
“This then becomes a relatively easy manifestation of abuse to identify and deal with. It is highly unlikely that there are medical conditions, which arrive on the weekend with such reliability and regularity” says Levy.
The most challenging period for employers is, no doubt, December, which can be taken to be from December 16 to January 2. For many companies this may be a period of factory shut down, but in any event, is always a period of lesser economic activity as the nation takes summer break.
Levy says employers’ options during this period vary from compulsory leave to accepting the many of the staff who are actually there in body, will be absent in spirit.
The major causes of bunking work and abusing sick leave is lower income, lesser responsibilities and repetitive work, says CAMS chief executive Johnny Johnson, adding that manual employees have consistently higher levels of absence than their white-collar compatriots. — I-Net Bridge